Drinking-driving case against NTI VP adjourned until December

Jack Anawak, 61, faces two charges

By NUNATSIAQ NEWS

Two drinking and driving charges laid against Jack Anawak, a vice president of Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. will be adjourned until December, a justice of peace ruled Sept. 21 in the Nunavut Court of Justice.

Anawak, 61, is charged with one count of driving while impaired and another for failing a breathalyzer test while operating a motor vehicle. That allegation implies that his blood alcohol level exceeded 80 milligrams of alcohol per 100 millilitres of blood.

The charges were laid May 24 in Iqaluit.

Anawak did not attend the Sept. 21 court appearance.

That’s because he’s currently in the south for a medical reasons said Abraham Tunraluk, a paralegal worker representing Anawak on behalf of lawyer, who is based in the South.

Justice of the Peace Nicole Sikma adjourned the matter until the first court docket week in December.

Originally from Repulse Bay, Anawak, 61, a Liberal, was elected as MP for the old riding of Nunatsiaq in the Northwest Territories.

Anawak served as a parliamentary secretary and assistant to the minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development after the Liberal party took power in Ottawa in the 1993 federal election.

He entered territorial politics in 1999, when he was elected MLA for Rankin Inlet North in the first Nunavut legislative assembly. He served as minister of justice, community government, and culture language elders and youth.

Anawak later served as ambassador for circumpolar affairs, until the Conservative government cut the position after the 2006 federal election.